Rudyard Kipling > Quotes

“To abstain from action is well—except to acquire merit.’ ‘At the Gates of Learning we were taught that to abstain from action was unbefitting a Sahib.”
― Rudyard Kipling, Kim

“nothin', or his edukashin which he niver got? You that think ye know things, answer me that." But I found no answer. I was wondering how long Ortheris, in the bank of the river, would hold out, and whether I should be forced to help him to desert, as I had given my word.”
― Rudyard Kipling, Indian Tales

“A yellow-and-brown streak glided from the purple rustling stems to the bank, stretched its neck to the water, drank, and lay still—a big cobra with fixed, lidless eyes. ‘I have no stick—I have no stick,’ said Kim. ‘I will get me one and break his back.’ ‘Why? He is upon the Wheel as we are—a life ascending or descending—very far from deliverance. Great evil must the soul have done that is cast into this shape.’ ‘I hate all snakes,’ said Kim. No native training can quench the white man’s horror of the Serpent. ‘Let him live out his life.’ The coiled thing hissed and half opened its hood. ‘May thy release come soon, brother!’ the lama continued placidly. ‘Hast thou knowledge, by chance, of my River?’ ‘Never have I seen such a man as thou art,’ Kim whispered, overwhelmed. ‘Do the very snakes understand thy talk?’ ‘Who knows?’ He passed within a foot of the cobra’s poised head. It flattened itself among the dusty coils. ‘Come, thou!’ he called over his shoulder. ‘Not I,’ said Kim. ‘I go round.’ ‘Come. He does no hurt.’ Kim hesitated for a moment. The lama backed his order by some droned Chinese quotation which Kim took for a charm. He obeyed and bounded across the rivulet, and the snake, indeed, made no sign.”
― Rudyard Kipling, Kim

“They will come back, come back again, as long as the red earth rolls. He never wasted a leaf or a tree. Do you think he would squander souls?”
― Rudyard Kipling

“No man's cub can run with the people of the jungle," howled Shere Khan. "Give”
― Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book

“One of the few advantages that India has over England is a great Knowability. After five years' service a man is directly or indirectly acquainted with the two or three hundred Civilians in his Province, all the Messes of ten or twelve Regiments and Batteries, and some fifteen hundred other people of the non-official caste, in ten years his knowledge should be doubled, and at the end of twenty he knows, or knows something about, every Englishman in the Empire, and may travel anywhere and everywhere without paying hotel-bills. Globe-trotters who expect entertainment as a right, have, even within my memory, blunted this open-heartedness, but none the less to-day, if you belong to the Inner Circle and are neither a Bear nor a Black Sheep, all houses are open to you, and our small world is very, very kind and helpful.”
― Rudyard Kipling, Indian Tales

“Directly in front of him, holding on by a low branch, stood a naked brown baby who could just walk—as soft and as dimpled a little atom as ever came to a wolf's cave at night. He looked up into Father Wolf's face, and laughed.”
― Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book

“While it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, fall be'ind",
But it's "Please to walk in front, sir", when there's trouble in the wind,
There's trouble in the wind, my boys, there's trouble in the wind,
O it's "Please to walk in front, sir", when there's trouble in the wind”
― Rudyard Kipling, Tommy

“THIS IS THE STORY of the great war that Rikki-tikki-tavi fought single-handed, through the bathrooms of the big bungalow in Segowlee cantonment. Darzee, the Tailorbird, helped him, and Chuchundra, the musk-rat, who never comes out into the middle of the floor, but always creeps round by the wall, gave him advice, but Rikki-tikki did the real fighting.”
― Rudyard Kipling, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi

“Like many other unfortunate young people, Harvey had never in all his life received a direct order—never, at least, without long, and sometimes tearful, explanations of the advantages of obedience and the reasons for the request.”
― Rudyard Kipling, Captains Courageous

“Very foolish it is to use the wrong word to a stranger; for though the heart may be clean of offence, how is the stranger to know that? He is more like to search truth with a dagger.”
― Rudyard Kipling, Kim

“Akela, the grim old wolf who had never asked for mercy in his life, gave one piteous look at Mowgli as the boy stood all naked, his long black hair tossing over his shoulders in the light of the blazing branch that made the shadows jump and quiver.”
― Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book

“Sing to your fledglings again, Mother, oh lift up your head!”
― Rudyard Kipling, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi

“There was never a Queen like Balkis
From here to the wide world's end;
But Balkis talked to a butterfly
As you, would talk to a friend.

There was never a king like Solomon,
Not since the world began;
But Solomon talked to a butterfly
As a man would talk to a man.

She was a queen of Sabea --
And he was Asia's Lord --
But they both of 'em talked to butterflies
When they took their walks abroad”
― Rudyard Kipling, Just So Stories

“If I can attain Heaven for a pice, why should you be envious?”
― Rudyard Kipling, Indian Tales

“Chuchundra is a broken-hearted little beast. He whimpers and cheeps all the night, trying to make up his mind to run into the middle of the room. But he never gets there.”
― Rudyard Kipling, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi

“And that is how Mowgli was entered into the Seeonee Wolf Pack for the price of a bull and on Baloo's good word. Now”
― Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book

“Alala! I have no cloth to wrap me. The kites will see that I am naked. I am ashamed to meet all these people.”
― Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book

“Encyclopaedia. "They're a mixed lot," said Dravot, reflectively; "and it won't help us to know the names of their tribes. The more tribes the more they'll fight, and the better for us. From Jagdallak to Ashang. H'mm!" "But all the information about the country is as sketchy and inaccurate as can be," I protested. "No one knows anything about it really. Here's the file of the United Services Institute. Read what Bellew says." "Blow Bellew!" said Carnehan. "Dan, they're an all-fired lot of heathens, but this book here says they think they're related to us English." I smoked while the men pored over Raverty, Wood, the maps and the Encyclopaedia. "There is no use your waiting," said Dravot, politely, "It's about four o'clock now. We'll go before six o'clock if you want to sleep, and we won't steal any of the papers. Don't you sit up. We're two harmless lunatics, and if you come, to-morrow evening, down to the Serai we'll say good-bye to you." "You are two fools," I answered, "You'll be turned back at the Frontier or cut up the minute you set foot in Afghanistan. Do you want any money or a recommendation down-country?”
― Rudyard Kipling, Indian Tales

“His mother did not call him Lungri [the Lame One] for nothing," said Mother Wolf quietly. "He has been lame in one foot from his birth. That is why he has only killed cattle. Now the villagers of the Waingunga are angry with him, and he has come here to make our villagers angry. They will scour the jungle for him when he is far away, and we and our children must run when the grass is set alight. Indeed, we are very grateful to Shere Khan!”
― Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book

“Then he jumped. The head was lying a little clear of the water jar, under the curve of it; and, as his teeth met, Rikki braced his back against the bulge of the red earthenware to hold down the head.”
― Rudyard Kipling, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi

“The book speaks for itself, leaps up at one from every page, brilliant and loving. But notice the characters: in the lama Kipling’s daimon ran away with him to create an immortal, wise, old holy man. He is really the decisive creation in Kim, even more important than Kim himself. And that is revealing: it means that Kipling’s creative genius was more powerful and compelling than his cerebral intentions. For the character of the lama flowered into a creation of unforgettable moral beauty: the holy man incarnates the patience, the wisdom of the East, the subjugation of self, the fully achieved human spirit. Though the lama is an old Tibetan monk, he is really India, he speaks for the East.”
― Rudyard Kipling, Kim

“With you-to the end of the world!”
― Rudyard Kipling, The Man Who Would Be King and Other Stories

“Waters of the Waingunga, Shere Khan gives me his coat for the love that he bears me. Pull, Gray Brother! Pull, Akela! Heavy is the hide of Shere Khan.”
― Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book

“For these simples used aright
Shall restore a failing sight.
These shall cleanse and purify
Webbed and inward-turning eye;
These shall show thee treasure hid,
Thy familiar fields amid,
At thy threshold, on thy hearth,
Or about thy daily path;
And reveal (which is thy need)
Every man a King indeed!”
― Rudyard Kipling, Rewards and Fairies

“As Mang flies between the beasts and birds, so fly I between the village and the jungle. Why?”
― Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book

“Respect the aged!"

"It was a thick voice—a muddy voice that would have made you shudder—a voice like something soft breaking in two.”
― Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Books

“Sleepest thou still, Shere Khan? Wake, oh, wake! Here come I, and the bulls are behind. Rama, the King of the Buffaloes, stamped with his foot. Waters of the Waingunga, whither went Shere Khan?”
― Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book

“No fairyland is Capua—still, 'tis better
Than other lands.
St. Vincent licked the stamp and signed the letter,
And bound the bands
Of that foul, frail red tape which strangles ever
The honest energetic fool's endeavour.”
― Rudyard Kipling, Departmental Ditties & Barrack Room Ballads

“Now Rann the Kite brings home the night That Mang the Bat sets free—”
― Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book